Gwen Sancar, PhD – President (Chapel Hill, NC)

Gwen Sancar, Ph.D. is Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine. Born in Waco , Texas , she attended public schools there, and in 1972 graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Baylor University . Dr. Gwen Sancar entered the graduate program at the University of Texas at Dallas in 1972 and, after 4.5 years of study on the mechanism of DNA replication in Physarum polycephalum, she was awarded the Ph.D. in 1977. She performed postdoctoral research at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn , New York , from 1977-1980, during which time she elucidated the arrangement of globin genes in alpha-thalassemia in African Americans and Ashkenazi Jews. In 1978 she married Dr. Aziz Sancar. In 1980 she joined her husband, at Yale University , where they collaborated on studies on the regulation of DNA repair genes in E. coli. Dr. Gwen Sancar joined the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC Chapel Hill in 1982. In addition to carrying out research in DNA repair enzymology and on the regulation of genes in response to DNA damage, and publishing over 40 original articles and book chapters on these topics, she has been very active in graduate and undergraduate education and in promoting research experiences for undergraduate students. Dr. Gwen Sancar hopes that Turk Evi will be a catalyst to promote understanding of Turkey , its people , and its contributions to the cultural heritage of the world by her fellow Americans.